Informal expressions

Expressions that are informal or even colloquial may be too informal for formal academic or business writing or speaking contexts. These are not necessarily wrong, but are dispreferred or considered less appropriate for such types of writing or discourse, and more formal expressions are preferred. Informal expressions, compared to their more formal counterparts, may be distinguished by the following characteristics.

Informal expressions	Formal expressions	Informal cf. formal examples
Words that are more general or less precise in meaning	Terms with more specific, precise meaning or scope	people vs. Canadians, voters, participants, etc.
Shorter, more common words (often from the Old Germanic or Old French parts of the English lexicon)	Longer, multi-syllabic terms from Latin, Greek, modern French, or other languages	sick vs. infection
Common words, e.g., high school level vocabulary	Less common, specialized vocabulary of certain fields; college or post-graduate level vocabulary	machine vs. laparoscope, EKG, eye tracker
Words that have an emotional, biased, or negative tone	Neutral sounding vocabulary	grammar Nazi vs. prescriptivist
Words or phrases that are more metaphorical	More transparent, neutral and precise terminology	don't beat around the bush vs. equivocate, prevaricate

1 Nouns

In many contexts, these terms might be vague or too non-specific, and would be better if replaced by a more specific noun, which will depend on the context.

colloquial	more formal
person, people (often vague) someone	individual, Canadians, researchers, subjects, voters, males, participants ...
thing, something	object, device, item, situation, circumstance, subject, element ...
man	males, (male) participants / subjects, male voters, etc.
women	females, (female) participants, etc.
part	portion, section, sector, segment, aspect
way (e.g., a way to do something)	manner, method, means, methodology, instrument, aspect

2 Pronouns

The second person you in writing sounds very informal or personal, and it is generally avoided in all forms of academic writing. Likewise, second-person verb forms are avoided. The first person I and we can sound informal, especially the singular I and me. These are generally avoided in formal writing, except when the authors need to comment directly, e.g., when explaining their rationale for doing something. First person is rarely used in science writing, occasionally in social science writing, and somewhat more often in humanities writing, such as in literature studies. If first person is needed, we is better than I.

3 Verbs

Second person verb forms, including commands aimed at the reader, are dispreferred and are rare in formal writing.

3.1 Light verbs

These are common, everyday verbs that are rather non-specific in meaning. These are distinguished from other verbs, in that (1) they are the first verbs learned in the language; (2) they have a great variety of meanings, and thus can be less specific semantically; and (3) they are often used in idioms, set expressions, and collocational expressions. In academic writing, many times it is better if these can be replaced with more specific verbs, and the choice will depend on the context. However, in set expressions like 'get married' it may be difficult to replace them.

light verb	more specific
be	exist, occur, equal, consist of, comprise (of), typify, appear, seem, tend...
have	possess, contain, exhibit ... In descriptive phrases, have can be replaced with with, e.g. "A patient who had the flu" → "A patient with the flu"
give	provide, yield, produce, lead to, impart...
do	perform, execute, carry out, implement, manage...
make	create, produce, facilitate...
go, run, come	proceed, journey, travel, progress, exceed...
set, put	place, position, arrange...

3.2 Phrasal verbs

When possible, phrasal verbs should be replaced with more formal verbs (of Latin origin). For example, many ESL students use find out when a better expression for formal writing would be discover, determine, ascertain. Since phrasal verbs often have many meanings, the choice will depend on the context.

phrasal verb	more specific
blow up	inflate, explode
find out	find, discover, ascertain, determine, decide on, assess
get over	recover
go out	exit, diminish, leave, depart, extinguish, cease, die, dim, expire, subside, decline, dwindle, recede, quit, retire, withdraw
go around	circumvent, circumnavigate, sidestep, ignore, rotate, gyrate, orbit, circumduct, twist, revolve, meander, ramble
mix up	mix, confuse
take out	excise, remove, clear, exclude, omit, extirpate, destroy

4 Adjectives, adverbials, & other modifiers

In many contexts, these terms might be vague or too non-specific, and would be better if replaced by a more specific word, which will depend on the context.

colloquial	more formal
bad	negative, pejorative, poor, ineffective, adverse...
big, huge	large, significant, enormous, incredible, gargantuan, gigantic, massive
a bit, a little bit	slightly, somewhat
good	sufficient, excellent, optimal, ideal, studious, prime, positive, effective, beneficial
kind of, sort of	somewhat, slightly
a lot of, lots of	many, numerous, a large number / amount of
tiny	small, very small, minute

5 Transitional / connector expressions

colloquial	more formal
anyway	This is used informally for changing topics; in formal writing, simply starting a sentence with a full noun topic, or starting a new paragraph, will often suffice.
besides	More formal alternatives are ‘in addition to’ or ‘furthermore’ - e.g., “In addition to these factors, ...”.
first of all	first
like	(is) similar to; for example, as, such as (As a connector, like can seem slightly colloquial. However, as a conjunction before verb phrases, or as a preposition, like is generally fine in contemporary formal English)
nowadays	currently, recently
whether or not	whether

Here are some examples of the more informal like, and more formal counterparts. Here, the informal like is used as a conjunction.

• Don't do like what she did. → Do not do as she has done.
• Activities like smoking and drinking are not allowed here. → Activities such as smoking and drinking are not allowed here.

Some examples of like that are perfectly fine, particularly when it is used as a preposition.

• We don't want any characters like him around.
• She looks just like me.

6 See also

1. Easily confused verbs such as say, tell, talk